The present invention relates to an apparatus for handling paper sheets and the like.
One of an apparatus for handling paper sheets and the like having a mechanism for discharging paper sheets and the like wound around a wheel is described, for example, in JP-A-11-272913 specification. This apparatus houses bills by winding a tape and the bills around the wheel, and discharges the bills by unwinding the tape. An arrangement is disclosed which is operative in discharging the bills from the wheel, to scrape the bills from the wheel, around which the bills have been wound together with the tape, using an elastic member constituting a tip portion of a scraper.
The above conventional example is configured so that the elastic member constituting the tip portion of the scraper is deformed to follow an outer peripheral surface of the wheel or the tape wound around the wheel in order to maintain contact therewith. If, however, any bill collides against the scraper and a paper jam thus occurs, an excessive force is applied to the elastic member. If the elastic member is deformed by the excessive force toward the downstream side of the rotating direction of the wheel effected during the discharge of the bills, the tip of the elastic member cannot collide against the bills so as to scrape them wound together with the tape around the wheel. Thus, the essential object of the scraper is not attained.
Further, the above conventional example makes no considerations for possible plastic deformation of the elastic member, which may result a gap in the contact between the elastic member and the wheel or the tape wound around the wheel.
Moreover, when rigidity of the elastic member is enhanced to prevent the elastic member from being deformed or broken under the excessive force, it cannot maintain contact with the outer peripheral surface of the tape wound around the wheel, that is, it cannot properly follow it. Thus, the essential object of the elastic member is not attained.
Further, the radius of the tape wound around the wheel increases in proportion to the number of bills stacked. As the radius increases, the elastic member is more and more significantly deformed, thus forming a gap between the tip of the elastic member and the outer peripheral surface of the tape. The function of scraping the bills wound together with the tape around the wheel is not achieved unless the tip of the scraper and the outer peripheral surface of the tape maintain contact with each other. In this case, the tip of the scraper can maintain contact with the outer peripheral surface if spring elasticity of the entire scraper is made smaller than the elasticity of the elastic member. In this case, however, an effect of the scraper that is obtained when the elastic member is elastically deformed is lost.
Further, with the scraper the tip portion of which is composed of the elastic member, if the outer peripheral surface of the tape wound around the wheel is irregular, the tip portion of the scraper and the outer peripheral surface of the tape wound around the wheel may not maintain sufficient contact with each other in the vicinity of the downstream side of the rotating direction of the wheel effected during the discharge of the bills.
That is, although this scraper is provided to scrape the bills from the wheel, if it is deformed or plastically deformed toward the downstream side of the rotating direction of the wheel observed during the discharge of the bills or if the outer peripheral surface of the tape wound around the wheel is irregular, the condition that the scraper tip maintains contact with the outer peripheral surface of the tape wound around the wheel is not established, that is, the essential function of the scraper is not achieved.
The present invention is provided in view of the above problems, and it is an object thereof to provide an apparatus for handling paper sheets and the like having high performance mechanism for discharging paper sheets and the like in which a scraper tip maintains contact with a wheel to thereby maintain its performance even if a paper jam or the like occurs.
To attain the above object, the present invention provides an apparatus for handling paper sheets and the like having a mechanism for discharging paper sheets and the like wound around a wheel, wherein the paper sheets discharging mechanism includes a scraper operative in discharging the paper sheets, to scrape the paper sheets wound around the wheel, and the scraper performs two or more levels of operations, and a tip of the scraper maintains contact with an outer peripheral surface of the wheel. The mechanism is further characterized in that the paper sheets discharging mechanism includes a scraper operative in discharging sheets, to scrape the sheets wound around the wheel, and the scraper includes a first scraper one end of which is rotatably fixed and a second scraper rotatably connected to the other end of the first scraper and having a tip portion in contact with an outer peripheral surface of the wheel.